Kyle Ardoin elected Louisiana Secretary of State

Updated 2 mos ago; Posted 2 mos ago

In this July 20, 2018, photo, Interim Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, R-Baton Rouge, talks to reporters about his last-minute decision to run in the special election for secretary of state (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte)

Interim Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, a Republican, will keep his job for at least another year. The Republican beat Democrat Gwen Collins-Greenup in a special election for secretary of state held Saturday (Dec. 8). Ardoin received 59 percent support statewide, with more than 516,000 votes cast.

“The secretary of state’s office is turning the page and entering a new chapter, a chapter I believe will be the most meaningful and impactful in history,” Ardoin said in his victory speech. “Our administration will not be defined by change. Rather, we will continue to expand upon the excellent work of the women and men of our office.”

Ardoin’s honeymoon after this victory may be short. If he wants to keep his job past 2019, he will have to run again next fall for a full term.

Saturday’s contest was a special election held outside of the normal cycle. It was necessary because Republican Tom Schedler, who had been secretary of state for 10 years, stepped down in May after one of his employees sued him for sexual harassment. The regular election for secretary of state will take place in 2019.

Ardoin has occupied the post since Schedler left it. Before that, Ardoin served as first assistant secretary of state, the number two position in the agency. He previously worked for the Louisiana House of Representatives and ran his own lobbying firm. His prior experience as an elected official was on the West Baton Rouge School Board.

Despite taking over for Schedler last spring, Ardoin was a late arrival to the statewide race. He initially told news media and state lawmakers in public hearings that he had no intention of running for the office. He then changed his mind and signed up for the election in the last few minutes of qualifying for candidates in July.

That wasn’t the only surprise. Collins-Greenup also caught Democratic party officials off-guard when she beat out seven other candidates in last month’s primary to advance to the runoff.

Before the primary, Collins-Greenup had only raised a few thousands dollars for her campaign while several other candidates spent tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of dollars more on their election efforts. The Louisiana Democratic Party had even endorsed another Democrat, Renee Fontenot Free, ahead of the primary.

In this Nov. 30, 2018 photo, Democratic secretary of state candidate Gwen Collins-Greenup waves at motorists during a campaign stop in Baton Rouge (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte)

Nevertheless, the party got behind Collins-Greenup for the runoff, though she still struggled to raise money. She collected a little over $22,000 in the month between the primary and runoff. By comparison, Ardoin raised $131,000 in that same time period.

“It is extremely difficult to fight against an incumbent candidate who holds the office and also oversees the entire election process," said Stephen Handwerk, executive director for the Louisiana Democratic Party.

Ardoin’s victory came despite finding himself in the middle of a couple of controversies during his short tenure as secretary of state. The Louisiana Division of Administration determined that the elections division in Ardoin’s agency didn’t handle the state’s voting machine contract bid process properly. It’s not clear when the state will replace its 13 year-old voting machines or when it will purchase a new election system, despite a major statewide election taking place next fall.

Ardoin was also in charge of human resources when Schedler’s alleged harassment took place. The employee’s lawsuit said Ardoin advised her to stay out of Schedler’s way when Schedler was angry at the woman for not returning his advances. The lawsuit ended up being settled, but cost the state government around $184,000 to resolve.

Ardoin has said he did not realize the dispute between the woman and Schedler had to do with alleged sexual harassment. Had he known that, Ardoin said he would have approached the situation differently. After the scandal broke, Ardoin implemented a new, stricter sexual harassment policy for the agency, among the most stringent in state government, he said.

On Election Day last month, Ardoin also got into an argument with the clerks of court and local voter registrars’ offices. When complaints started to roll in about the lack of “I voted” stickers that were available, Ardoin said that was the responsibility of local election agencies, not his statewide office. Some local elected officials pushed back on that explanation, saying the secretary of state would be the one to provide the stickers. So Ardoin pivoted to saying it was a budget problem and money wasn’t available in his agency to offer the stickers.